Camp Echidna
by darlingDystopia
Summary: Okay, so let me get this straight: There's Camp Half-Blood for half-Greek gods and Camp Jupiter for half-Roman gods. Did we miss anyone? Oh yeah, let's not forget about Camp Echidna: The summer camp for children of Greek monsters! The Minotaur? Sirens? Medusa? You really thought they'd let the gods have all the fun? Oh please! They get out more often than you'd think. #OCs
1. Chapter 1

**Hello everyone! I'm Magnolia and this is Camp Echidna, my Percy Jackson original characters story. This story is also on AO3 ****under the same title and author username** if that is your preferred fanfictioning website. And now, some quick notes...

**WARNING: MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS FROM ALL PERCY JACKSON AND HEROES OF OLYMPUS BOOKS, INCLUDING HOUSE OF HADES. PROCEED WITH CAUTION.**

**This story takes place AFTER The Battle of the Labyrinth, but BEFORE The Last Olympian.**

**Mist picture used in cover from www_meteoblue_com (replace _ with .)**

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Look, we all know that I'd always wanted to be a dual-blood, so I might as well get this whole story off my chest.

And no, I'm not that stupid Peter Jackson guy or whatever his name is. I'm telling you that now because _he_ got the story all wrong. He left out some important details that he really should've told you all about. But I'll get to that later.

So, Lamia is telling me that I'm legally required to notify you of this or something: Being a dual-blood is dangerous. Pretty scary too. But I guess that if you truly are one, you'd probably ignore my advice about that. We're all thrill-seekers on the inside.

That actually brings me to my next point: If you think you _are_ a dual-blood, you might want to close this webpage now. Learning more about _who_ you are just makes it easier for them to see _what_ you are. Just go on jumping off cliffs, throwing yourself into fires, and keep up all those sweet stink bomb explosions in your school cafeteria. Anything besides reading this.

Of course, if you _don't_ do all that good stuff on a regular basis, keep on reading. I admire you for being able to pretend that none of this ever happened.

But, if at any time you recognize yourself in these pages or if you feel the sudden urge to do something spontaneously violent, stop reading immediately. It's only a matter of time before the Mist is spread too thin.

Don't say I didn't warn you.

...

I really didn't get what the teacher was getting all worked up about. I mean, it's not like anyone had gotten genuinely hurt. Spiders are really just like ants with extra legs, if you think about it. And they kill other annoying insects. That's cool, right?

Well, that's what I tried to tell the rest of my science class, anyways. But, _noooo_. Little miss Chloe Adeline Everly—my ever-so-enjoyable lab partner—just had to scream her little blonde head off about creepy little insects, which she must've known would set me off, because spiders are _definitely_ not insects.

"Can't you count?" I told her, holding the one we were supposed to be examining up to her face. The tiny arachnid balanced neatly on my fingers. "See? Eight. Eight legs. Not six."

"Freak!" she'd shrieked at me, backing away like I'd just sprouted an extra eye.

I shrugged and went back to making an enclosure out of pencils and textbooks for my new friend the spider. And that was when it got good: There I was, minding my own business, when all of a sudden, Chloe Adeline hit me across the back of the head with a hardcover novel.

Gods, I really hated books. Maybe that's why I'm publishing this online for free instead of printing it out and trying to get people to buy it.

"There was a spider in your hair!" she said, alarmed, like she really cared about my hair, spider or not.

"That's it," I growled, launching myself at her. She yelped and dropped her book, ducking behind some lab equipment to get away from me.

Except, she didn't account for the fact that I was probably the most agile person in the whole eighth grade. I jumped over the table, shattering glass vials and the tank of spiders we were supposed to be examining. We started rolling around between the lab tables, while the rest of the class stayed silent, except for a few brave ones who started laughing. That is, until the spiders got involved.

I really had no idea how it happened, but suddenly me and Chloe were both covered in creepy crawling spiders of every size.

Everyone in the class screamed as they realized that somehow, all of their test subjects had escaped from their tanks. Girls started climbing up on chairs, Chloe Adeline was trying hysterically to swipe the spiders from her clothes, and my best friend Kaia was laughing maniacally from the back of the classroom.

I stood up desperately and tried telling them it was no problem and that we could get them back in the tanks if they stopped freaking out, but they just kept right on screeching about bugs in their hair.

That's about when Ms. Paley, the science teacher, decided to waltz back into the room after taking a break that she wasn't even supposed to be allowed to do. I mean, who leaves a classroom full of kids alone with boxes of spiders, anyway?

"What is going on here?" she yelled over the chaos of the room. "Why are all the spiders out?"

It appeared as if Chloe had finally removed all the bugs from her hair, so she stood up and announced, "Ariadne did it! Ariadne let all the spiders out and then she attacked me."

I hadn't even blinked twice before Ms. Paley had the entire class out of the science lab and had called the office to say that Ariadne Weaver and Chloe Adeline Everly were going to be reporting there soon. She told us to take separate routes.

Walking past the rest of the class, I saw my classmates shaking spiders from their clothes. One girl was seriously freaking out and her hair was sticking up everywhere like she'd just run her hands through it a hundred times making sure that there weren't any spare arachnids left in it. And then there was Kaia. There was a fat spider sitting right on top of her head, but she only grinned and fist-bumped me as I passed. I thought about mentioning it to her, but it looked pretty content up there, so I just left it.

...

I was sitting on a chair that the principal had made me drag out into the hallway while Chloe Adeline told her side of the story to him and Ms. Paley when my dad walked up. My father tended to drag his feet when he walked, and he always had a look to him that somehow made him appear like an insect with a bent antenna, unbalanced and disrupted. He was sporting messy brown-going-gray hair with a patterned button-up shirt that belonged in a different decade. He had dark blue eyes, like me, which had probably been just as bright as mine at some point, if not for the exhausted gaze that filled them.

I guessed the school must have called him and explained the situation or whatever, because he just looked at me with his tired eyes like he was asking, _"Why?"_

I _hated_ when he gave me that look. You'd think I would've gotten used to it for all the times I've been sent to the principal's office, but every single time he did it, he managed to send my emotions to the back of my gut to sit in a dark corner for an eternal time out.

I shrunk back in my chair. "She called spiders insects. And she hit me on the head with a book!" I insisted, tilting my head towards the door. "You know how much I hate books."

"And what happened after that?" he sighed, raising his eyebrows at me.

I raised my eyebrows right back, daring him to make a guess at what happened.

He sighed some more, and nodded, and finally just pushed open the door to the principal's office, just like I'd seen him do so many times before.

Oh, no, this was _definitely_ not the first time my dad had had to pick me up from school and talk to the teachers while I sat outside the door, wishing I could disappear. It's too bad they couldn't just expel me. That's just one of the many downsides of living in a small town with just one middle school.

I counted to a thousand while I waited for my dad to come back out. Now he was wearing a face that seemed more to say, _"Really?"_

On the car ride home, I decided to sit in the back seat instead of riding shotgun. I never really felt bad about any of the stuff that I started at school until he found out, and then I felt guilty. Really, really guilty. Maybe he wouldn't try to talk to me.

But, of course, this is _me_ we're talking about. And if you'll learn anything from this story, it'll be that I have the worst luck.

"You got suspended, you know," he said, glancing up at the rear view mirror to look at me.

"Yeah, I figured that."

"I saw that you forgot to take meds this morning."

"The meds wouldn't have made a difference." That was actually the truth. The Adderall that I took for my ADHD did almost nothing for me; it was like something inside me just really did not want it to work.

"Well, you wouldn't really know unless you took it, did you?" he said anyway.

I shrugged and tried to concentrate on the scenery by looking out the window. It was uneventful. I guess living in one extremely small city for your entire life will make you bored with your surroundings sometimes. The houses were mostly occupied by old grandmas and grandpas, because all of their children had grown up and gotten out of this stupid town. The streets were narrow and they go up and down small hills like roller coasters. Not that many people were driving on them, of course. Most people here just walked and biked everywhere in town, since it was so small. We had a grand total of one elementary school, one middle school, and one high school. Welcome to Porter, Indiana.

My house was on the north edge of town, nested right into the woods with no neighboring houses on our side of the street. There was a baseball diamond down the road from us, but almost no one except the Porter peewee baseball team ever used it. I was more interested in the woods that surrounded it.

As my dad pulled into the driveway, I glanced longingly at the tall trees casting perfect shadows around our house. I was definitely not going to be able to go out there again for a while.

"Ariadne Weaver, go inside and go to your room. Don't leave until I come back, I've got to go run some errands. You're grounded."

I was about to whine, _"And suspended?"_ but then I decided it would be better to just let it go. Hefting my backpack on my shoulder, I slammed the car door behind me as I got out of the car. I was suddenly very angry. Angry at myself, mostly. I dug my fingernails into the palms of my hands. I was so _stupid_ sometimes.

I retrieved my key from my backpack and unlocked the door, watching my dad pull out of the driveway again.

Our home was one of those small, one-story half-brick and half-wood type houses with the inside painted with yellows and oranges that always reminded me of a construction site. There was a basketball hoop above the garage door, but it didn't have a net and I never used it because I was really short and could never make a basket. It was a nice enough house, and it was cool because my dad and I have been living there since forever. He grew up there and had never thought to leave like all the other sensible people who used to live here.

That's right, just me and my dad in that house. No maternal figures in sight. I'd never really known my mom and I'd never really wanted to. My dad once asked me why I didn't ask more questions about her, but I just shrugged. _"What's the point in you telling me about her if I'll never know her myself?"_ I'd told him. But that didn't necessarily stop him from telling me stories about her anyway. I think that they'd known each other for maybe a half a year or so before she'd told him that she had to go back to her family in Italy. No more than half a year later, I show up on the front doorstep with no warning or explanation whatsoever. I've always thought that was kind of mean, but whenever my dad talked about her, he never seemed upset. He told me stuff about her, like what she liked or disliked.

"_She didn't like birds very much, especially big ones. But she liked bugs," _my dad would say to me. _"And she absolutely adored Greek mythology. That's why I named you Ariadne, you know. You're the Greek princess who helped Theseus kill the Minotaur."_

I loved Greek mythology, too. We had a big picture book full of myths, and it was one of the few books that I could actually stand. My dad and I would talk for hours on end about Greek mythology, and what the Greeks thought about science and the planets. He works as a high school science teacher, so he knows all about that kind of stuff.

But regrettably, we'd been talking less and less recently.

I went to my room and dropped my backpack on the bed with a thud. Sitting down on top of my pile of blankets, I swiped my yo-yo off my desk and began sending it up and down the string. There wasn't much space in my tiny, cramped room for fancy tricks, but I could certainly perform showy displays if I wasn't cooped up in this suffocatingly small house.

My bedroom was usually a dark place and the air in there was probably more dust than oxygen. I rarely bothered to open the one tiny window it had. There were posters for obscure horror films covering the walls, and a small, narrow bed with mismatched covers stuffed into the corner of the room between a dresser and my desk. I didn't do much in here besides sleep and occasionally sulk, like I was right about then.

I was almost always outside. In the woods, mostly. I loved to climb trees and jump down to the ground and maybe even try to jump from one to another.

You can guess that I've broken a lot of bones in the past.

It had been about fifteen minutes into my sulking session before a knocking sound came from the window and made me jump. The yo-yo hit the floor and I lost count of how many times I'd bounced it.

I went over to the dusty window and yanked the cord that made the blinds shoot up. Squinting at the sudden increase in light, I saw my best friend Kaia's face pressed up against the screen on the window, with her nose closely resembling a pig's. She beamed and waved at me with one hand while the other one remained tucked behind the strap of her backpack.

Kaia was really awesome because she had been my friend all year, and she didn't call me a freak even once! Most people can't get over my obsession with bugs and my ADHD and anger management issues and stuff. But, honestly, she's a little weird herself. If there was one word to describe Kaia, it would be snakelike.

Kaia's like a freaking ninja. She could sneak up on you wearing jingle bells. You'd think she'd be really clumsy and loud, because she walks kinda funny. She drags her feet a lot, but at the same time, she almost seems to glide down the hallways at school.

That makes her sound graceful, but, believe me, she's not. I mean, she's definitely not ugly, but you wouldn't exactly call her cute. She's got straight, sooty black hair and small, bottle green eyes that you would think should be able to glow in the dark like a snake's but evidently don't.

One other thing about Kaia that only further reinforces the reptilian air about her is this lisp that she's got that gets on everybody's nerves. She told me once that she's had it since she was a kid, and it was no big deal. It's not like she's hard to understand or anything, it's just something about the letter S that makes it seem like she's hissing at everyone.

I unlocked the window and pulled up the glass pane, feeling a breeze drift through the screen.

Kaia's mouth went off right away. "Oh my goshh, Ari! Everyone at sschool is ssaying you were expelled and Chloe Adeline Everly has pretty much ssworn vengeance on you now, you know? Sso, like, I wass telling them all how you could _totally_ beat her in a fight like, heck! You already did. But, oh my goshh! I'm talking too much. Everyone is ssaying you got expelled!"

I sighed. "No, not really. Just suspended. And, well, grounded." I motioned dramatically to my surroundings—or lack thereof—to show what I meant.

Kaia's giddiness evaporated and she leaned on my window sill. "Oh, ssorry. I guesss your dad didn't take it well, huh?"

I shook my head. "He pretty much told me that I'm a prisoner here until he gets home."

She leaned on the window sill and I looked around my small, restricted room again.

"Want to take a walk with me?" Kaia asked. "I brought food."

"Yes, please!" I slid the screen open on the window and hopped out. After closing the window behind me, Kaia and I started racing off into the forest behind my house. You might be able to blame Kaia's weird limp, but I was always faster. I was faster than nearly everyone in our grade, for that matter.

I made a show of leaning coolly against a tree when Kaia finally caught up.

"That'ss not fair, you're, like, ssuperhuman!"

"Oh, I'm sure." I rolled my eyes.

Kaia shrugged off her backpack and sat down hard with her back against a tree. She dug around in her bag for a minute and pulled out a small orange box. She shook it at me.

"Your favorite," she said, beaming.

"Aw, yes!" I responded, pouncing on the box. I took it and tore open the top, pouring some bacon-and-cheese-flavored crickets into my palm. Just another thing to add to the list of why normal people aren't my friends. I stuffed the bugs in my mouth.

"Ariadne, you better make those lasst. You owe me like three dollarss for them."

"Yeah, yeah." I nodded and waved my hand, though we both knew that I would never pay her back. I was always broke, because my dad didn't give me allowance or anything, and I was only thirteen, so I wouldn't be able to get a job for at least a couple more weeks when I turned fourteen.

I didn't know it back then, but by that time, everything would be different.

"So," Kaia said, pulling a sandwich out of her backpack. "What's been up with you recently?"

"Ah, same old, same old." I reached up to a tree branch above my head and lifted myself off the ground. "You know, sometimes I really do wish that I was superhuman. That'd be tons better than just plain, old Ariadne Weaver." I swung my legs up on the branch and let go so I was hanging from my knees.

"Lissten, Ari." Kaia took a bite out of her sandwich and proceeded to talk with her mouth full.

"If you are anything, you are definitely not plain. You eat cricketss like Cheetos and are the fastesst human I've ever met and you are currently hanging upsside down from a tree. Face it, you're not ordinary by a long shot."

"Um..."

"Gah!" Kaia dropped her sandwich and slapped her palm on her forehead. "That came out wrong. I meant it as a good thing!"

"That's okay." I smiled at her. "I know what you mean."

"Exactly." She retrieved her snack from the ground where she'd dropped it, dusted it off, and pointed to me with it. "That's why you're my best friend."

I shrugged, which was weird considering that I was upside down. "I guess."

"Hey, wanna race again? To the other end of the forest?"

I grinned. "Ain't much of a race when you're dragging your feet all the time."

Laughing, Kaia got up. "Challenge accepted."

In one smooth movement, I flipped off of the tree branch and landed squarely on the soft ground. Kaia had already taken off, and that was probably more than fair, because I had such a speed advantage.

In fact, I caught up to her in a matter of seconds. She shouted something after me that I couldn't hear. It only took a minute or two for me to decide to play a little trick on my friend.

Stopping, I looked around a small clearing to find a good tree. I scaled one easily, not minding the rough bark scratching my hands. The air smelled crisp and the trees swayed in the light breeze. I felt a little guilty for leaving when my dad had told me to stay inside my room, but I would be back before he even got home! And he didn't _really_ expect me to stay cooped up in that tight little bedroom of mine all day anyway, did he? Pretty impossible if you ask me.

Kaia suddenly entered the small clearing. She cupped her hands to her mouth and yelled down the pathway that I probably would've gone down if I hadn't thought up my brilliant idea to climb the tree. "Ari! I give up! You totally win!"

She sighed and then laughed a little. I grinned as she slowly made her way to a tree next to mine and sat down underneath it. She started picking at the grass and I cautiously climbed up my branch. I would have to swing to the next tree over.

Hoping that she would mistake my noise for a squirrel or a bird, I carefully hopped to the next branch. I closed my eyes and bit my lip, praying that it would hold my weight. It did.

_This is gonna be gold,_ I thought to myself, as Kaia continued to twirl a blade of grass around her finger. I felt a tickling at my ear, and I brushed my hand over the spot. When it came away, there was a tiny spider clutching onto my finger. Smiling, I placed it on the branch next to me.

"Come to watch, huh?" I asked it quietly. "You picked a great spot."

Below, Kaia snapped her head back to look up at the tree. I melted back into the leaves. She wouldn't be able to see me here. When she went back to her attempts at making a grass whistle, I started lowering myself down, branch by branch until I was within jumping distance from the ground. I counted down in my head. _Three... two... one!_

I tackled Kaia and she let out a yelp of alarm. I wrapped my arms around her head. I was laughing hysterically when I felt a pinching feeling on my right arm.

"Ah, Kaia! Did you just bite me?"

"Ari! What was— oopss9, ssorry. I guesss I did bite you. Ssorry! Ssorry! Natural insstinct, I sswear!"

Oh well. Maybe my brilliant trick wasn't quite as good as I'd hoped. "It's oka—"

"I sseriously didn't mean to—"

"Kaia, really. It's okay, I was the one who scared you in the first place."

"Um... Oh my godss, Ari..."

"Yeah?"

"Your arm is, like, bleeding!"

"What?"

I suddenly felt an intense stinging sensation in my forearm where she had bit me. When I looked down, what I saw made me absolutely sick to my stomach. The flesh around the two small puncture marks on my arm was turning _green._

Yelping, my first inclination was to rub the area where my skin was being zombified, resulting in my smearing the blood from the wounds up and down my arm.

"Sstop! Sstop!" Kaia told me frantically, grabbing my wrist. "You're only making it worsse by sspreading the venom around!"

_Venom? What!_ I examined my arm through the blood. _Where had those two marks come from anyway? All she did was bite me!_

I screamed and waved my arm back and forth, like I could shake off the horrible burning feeling in my arm.

"Ari! Sstop it! You're only sspeeding up the processs by getting your blood pumping. It'll only sspread the poison to your heart!"

I had absolutely no idea what Kaia was talking about, I only had enough sense left in me to register what she was saying and stop flinging my arm around.

"Okay..." Kaia's voice sounded disturbingly soothing. "Now you have to _calm down._"

"How am I supposed to do that when—"

"Jusst. Calm. Down."

I took a deep breath, trying to do what Kaia asked. She obviously thought she knew something on the subject of poison.

"Good." She grimaced. "Your heart should stop beating any minute now."

"WHAT?" I screamed. Obviously, my heart rate would not be going down any time soon.

"I did not just ssay that!" Kaia yelled, beating her fists on the sides of her head.

"Kaia, what's happening? And since when do you have fangs!"

It was true. Kaia's face looked longer and sharper than usual, and when she opened her mouth to reply, her canine teeth were strangely elongated.

My knees were jelly. I sat down hard in the grass.

Kaia knelt next to me. "Ari! Ari, are you okay?"

I strained my neck to look up at her. "Is this some kind of joke?" I asked her. I had my good hand wrapped around the sticky, damp skin on the arm that she'd bitten. My insides didn't feel much better than my outsides looked. My breathing was shallow and any part of me that wasn't a sickly shade of green was deathly pale. _Could I really be dying?_

"No, it'ss really happening— er— I mean, nope! Thiss iss all jusst a prank! I got you, haha," she laughed nervously.

"You _really_ suck at lying, Kaia."

"Okay, okay! Thiss iss real!"

"You better start explaining _now,_" I commanded.

"Um, ssure. Okay. Sso, well, long sstory."

"Out with it! I'm dying over here!" I was really panicking now. But even more than that, I was furious. I got mad when I didn't understand something; and boy, was I not understanding the situation now. My anger management issues were really starting to show.

"Alright, sso, you know the Greek mythss, right?"

"Yeah, duh. I'm named after one!"

"Oh, right! I sshould've figured that out... Anyway! Sso, like, how do I ssay this? Well, they're real."

"Skip to the part where you have fangs," I spat through clenched teeth, not having time for the whole "Greek mythology is real" concept at the moment.

"Okay, so there are these Greek gods, right? So, one of them made this, like, monster. Named Echidna. And she, like, made all these other monsters, like the Sirens and the Chimera and—"

"I get it!"

"I'm one of those monsters. I'm a scythian dracaena... a snake woman."

"And you just bit me, and I'm gonna die?" I asked, because that was really the only detail I cared about at the time.

"Maybe not!" Kaia said hurriedly. "Not if you calm down and I can get you back to Camp and—"

"Fine!" I took a few deep breaths to show her that I could be calm.

"Great." Kaia forced a smile. "Now, drink this." She produced a plastic water bottle from her backpack. Only, I sincerely doubted that it was holding water. The sticky-looking liquid inside of it was a dark red color.

"What is _that_?" I asked, though I didn't wait for an answer. I just took the bottle in my trembling hands and popped the top open with my teeth. I hesitantly took a small sip. I couldn't tell you what it tasted like, because it didn't really taste like anything. Water, maybe. But even _water_ has some taste. This was like drinking liquid _air._

I took another sip, but this time Kaia tipped the bottom up and the entire contents drained into my mouth. I was choking and sputtering for a second, but then it evaporated in my throat.

It was a pleasant sensation. Until I blacked out the next second.

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**I'm not a big fan of ending authors notes... but, what do you think of the story so far?**

**Maybe I should just do some kind of writer's tips thing here...**

**-DD**

**PS: Reviews are ALWAYS welcome and I reply to EVERY ONE.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello, it's me again! In case you wanted more updates on what I'm reading/writing, you can follow my writing blog on Tumblr: darlingdystopia_tumblr_com (replace _ with .) It will also include some behind-the-pages extras, and some short stories that I'm writing! I also have a Wattpad, AO3, and FictionPress, all under the same username I have on this website, in case you were curious. Thanks again for reading!**

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The room I stood in was vast and echoey. There was enough light to see by, though if there was a source of the brightness, I couldn't detect it. I couldn't even be sure that this place—wherever it was—was just a room; the ceiling was so high up that I couldn't see it through the darkness of the cavern. It was so quiet that I could hear my own heart beating. I took a small step forward, my sneaker making a soft squeak on the smooth, stone floor.

In the very center of the chamber, there was a small throne, facing away from me. That hadn't been there a second ago, had it? It was a chair at ground level, with silvery fabric draped across the back, and jewels studded in the base. I took another hesitant step forward, not knowing what else to do. Suddenly, the chair spun around to reveal who was sitting there. It was me. But, it _wasn't_ me. At least, I didn't think it was.

The girl slouching in the throne definitely looked like me. She had the same long, wavy black hair as me, and the same short, turned-up nose. It was like looking in a mirror. A very real, very menacing, three-dimensional mirror.

When the clone-me raised her face to look at me with dissatisfaction, I saw that her eyes—though the same round shape and dark blue color—were much different from mine. They were looming and ominous, and they seemed to suck the light from the air and spit more darkness back out.

"Everything is about to get very... interesting, isn't it?" the other-me growled, flashing her disturbing eyes at me.

"I don't know what you mean," I said in a quavering voice.

"Just you wait," she smirked, sitting up higher in her throne. "You'll see soon enough."

All of a sudden, the dimness of the haunting room was replaced by a bright yellow light, coming from above me. I felt something graze my arm lightly and the skin stung worse than a bad sun burn. I groaned, shutting my eyes tight again. When I tried to tug my hand away from whatever was holding it, my muscles ached, and a voice mumbled, "Um, I wouldn't if I were you."

Despite the warning, I pulled my arm up to my chest and clawed at the wrappings around it. It was some kind of cloth bandage.

The voice from before sighed. "Come on! I'd just gotten done wrapping that."

When I finally tore all of the bandages away and took a good look at my arm, I felt like throwing up. My skin had turned brown and purple and green and just about every other disgusting color in between around two white, scarred-over puncture marks embedded next to each other in my arm.

"I guess I'll just start over, then," the person muttered, taking my wrist again, gingerly.

"What?" I asked groggily. "Where—?"

"Before I answer your questions," the voice—whom I was pretty sure was male—told me, "I'm supposed to inform you that you're not dead. Congratulations."

I turned my head towards him but couldn't make out much except for a dark silhouette. I opened my mouth as much as I could. My tongue was dry. "I figured that," I managed. "I didn't think dying was supposed to hurt _this_ much."

The guy laughed. "Oh, the Camp is sure going to like you."

Before I could ask what "the Camp" meant, I felt myself slipping back into darkness. In seconds I was out cold again.

...

The next time I woke up, my room was pitch-black and empty. I felt around in the dark until I found a lamp on a small table next to my bed. I flipped it on and squinted. Dust floated around the lamp, along with a stringy piece of cobweb drifting from the nightstand to the wall. A small spider crawled out from under the lampshade and peaked out at me.

"Hey," I croaked to it. My throat hurt, but nowhere near as much as my arm did. The bandage was still on it, but this time I knew better than to mess with it. Whatever had happened to my arm, I really didn't want to know the details.

I tried lifting my injured hand to the spider, but it ached so much that I could barely move it. Instead, I touched my left hand to the lamp and the spider scuttled onto it.

I couldn't remember a whole lot that had happened... At the time I was thinking I probably dreamed up most of the past few— what, hours? Days? _Longer_?That was a scary thought. It made me suddenly eager to figure out where I was. No more messing around with bugs. I put my spider friend back down on the nightstand and pushed the soft blankets off of me. Swinging my legs over the side of the bed, my vision went fuzzy. _This is going to prove problematic,_ I thought to myself. When my head stopped spinning, I tried standing up.

The tiny spider just sat and watched me wobble on my feet.

"Well, I don't see _you_ helping any," I told it.

It seemed to be laughing at me.

I stumbled to the door across the room, clutching the doorknob once I'd gotten there. It had only been four small steps, but I already felt like I would black out. I twisted the simple wooden doorknob and pulled the door open. I'd half expected—and maybe hoped—that it would be locked, but I just didn't have that kind of luck, then, did I?

The hallway was dark, narrow, and long. What kind of building was this? It didn't seem like any kind of prison. A hospital, maybe? I vaguely remembered someone mentioning something about a camp...

A shadow shifted at the end of the corridor. A person was walking this way. I thought about my options. Duck back into my room and pretend I was asleep the whole time? I didn't know if I'd be able to move fast enough for that. Maybe I could just try and walk past whoever the person was and hope that they didn't recognize me. After a second, I realized that was a stupid idea.

Too late to do anything now. The figure lifted their head to look at me.

"Hey, you're up," the guy said in a hazily familiar voice, sounding only mildly surprised.

"Uh-huh," I grunted. I was getting tired again, so I leaned against the doorframe to my room. I decided to get right to the point. "What is this place and why am I here?" I demanded.

"You're in the Sick Bay at Camp Echidna," he explained, considerately.

I gave him a look. "Camp Enchilada. Great. Well, _that_ really clears things up."

Maybe being snippy like that wasn't the best strategy for me to choose if I was going to find my way out of this place unharmed, but the guy just smirked. I couldn't see very well between the darkness of the hallway and the black spots forming in my vision, but I could tell that he was much taller than me, and skinny as a beanpole.

"It's _Echidna_. Ee-kid-na. Like, the mother of all monsters. Look, I promise you'll get everything explained to you later, okay?" he assured. "Right now... how are you feeling?"

I realized that he must've been the same guy as before; the one who'd wrapped my arm.

"Like an angry lumberman got a hold of my arm and put it through a woodchipper a few hundred times, then handed it off to his friend the blacksmith to smelt into some kind of chew toy for rabid wolves."

As my eyes adjusted to the dark, I saw the tall boy grin ruefully. "That's what scythian dracaena venom does to you. We're all really surprised that you survived, actually." When he saw my confusion, he asked, "You don't remember much, do you?"

I thought back. I remembered the forest behind my house... and me and Kaia running... and me climbing... It was coming back to me.

"Who _are_ you?" I asked.

"My name's Chaos."

"That doesn't sound like a real name," I stated.

"Well, tell that to my dad then, because I don't think so either." He paused, maybe to see if I would laugh or not. "It's Greek," he continued. "The immortal force that created the titans, or something stupid like that."

"Greek?"

"Same as yours, _Ariadne_."

"How do you—?"

"Know your name? Kaia told me."

"Kaia!" I breathed. "You know her? Is she here?"

"Yeah, she's probably outside somewhere." He held out his arm to me for support. "Come on, I'll show you."

He led me down the hallway. There was light streaming out of some of the cracks in the doors, but most of them were dark. I wondered how many rooms there were, and then remembered that there were more important things to address.

"So, uh, listen," I said, nervously. "Kaia told me something right before I blacked out from... whatever made me black out. It was something about Greek mythology." I didn't want to say anything stupid, in case whatever I thought Kaia had told me was a hallucination or a dream or something.

But Chaos just nodded and said, "Go on."

"And, well, it might sound weird, but..." I paused, choosing my next words carefully, and then speaking very quickly. "She told me the Greek gods are real, and the monsters too, and that she poisoned me, or something. Does that make sense? Was she—?"

"Telling the truth?" Chaos interrupted. "Most definitely."

"What does that mean exactly? 'The Greek gods are real?'"

"Well, _they're real_; that's one major thing." I couldn't tell for sure in the dark, but I was pretty sure he rolled his eyes right about then. "Would you like me to repeat it in Latin for you?"

"No thanks," I retorted, sensing his sarcasm. "But, really. I mean, I know some people are really religious; I'm not, but I know some people are, and—"

Chaos cut me off again. "Religion doesn't have anything to do with it. They're real, trust me."

"Alright," I snapped, suddenly angry from frustration. "But forgive me if I decide not to take the word of some random guy with a flaky name and a snarky personality that I just met on the topic of almighty divine beings."

He held his hands up in the air. "I'm not expecting you to believe me right this second. Just—I don't know—brace yourself for some freaky stuff. It'll turn up sooner or later."

_Freaky stuff,_ I thought. _Great. Bring it on. I am the freaking _queen_ of freaky stuff. I can take anything that comes my way, even a Greek god, if that's what it comes to._

Ha! If only I had known.

...

By the time we actually got out of that building, I was about ready to throw up again. My head spun from all of the weaving, identical hallways the place had. I lowered myself onto the top step leading up to the big building and sat panting with my head between my knees. A fold out chalkboard, like the ones they put in front of cafes to advertise, stood next to me on the wooden deck. It read, "Sick Bay" in lime-green chalk, along with, "Did you hear about the guy who got torn in half? The nurses said there wasn't much left, but he's all right now!"

Dizziness and horrible jokes aside, the breeze felt wonderful. I heard a soft crashing noise, like water against rocks, and instantly wondered if we were near the ocean.

I lifted my head up and squinted my eyes at the brightness. The sun was high up in the sky, and I figured it must've been late in the afternoon. Laid out in front of me was a sight that I definitely had not been expecting.

"Are you okay?" Chaos asked me, sitting down next to me on the porch steps. In the light, I could now see that he was wearing a dark jacket with the hood up, despite the warm weather. He also had on sunglasses. They were simple and not flashy, like they were meant to be practical, not to show off or draw attention.

"Yeah..." I trailed off. "Where am I, again?"

"It's called Camp Echidna, located in Miami, Florida," he said.

"Miami?" I inquired. I was from Indiana, and had never really been traveling that much. I'd never been much farther south than Kentucky, much less to the state of Florida.

Chaos nodded to me. "Tucked right into a corner of the Bermuda Triangle."

"And this is... a summer camp," I stated, looking to Chaos for confirmation.

I looked out at all the summer camp-like stuff spread out around the valley that dipped below us and the Sick Bay. There were dirt paths criss-crossing the area, with kids milling around in shorts and green T-shirts. There was a small square building that looked like it should've been covered in cobwebs due to how deserted it appeared, and a big round building with kids flowing in and out like water.

Among the assortment of other buildings were two long structures. From this distance, I couldn't be sure, but it looked like the one on the right was constructed completely of glistening marble, and the other one appeared to be made all out of splintery, brown wood. In between the Sick Bay and the two long buildings was an open area dotted with black trees. There were tons of teenagers there; some were older, maybe seventeen or eighteen, but most looked about thirteen, like me. They were just relaxing, like you'd think kids would at a summer camp. Some younger ones played tag, some older ones held hands and walked side by side, and some were even... were they fighting with swords?

Chaos replied, "A special kind of summer camp."

I was about to ask him what that meant, when a boy passed in front of Sick Bay. He didn't look like he was on his way to do anything important, he kind of just ambled along with a sway in his step. The boy was tall, but not nearly as tall as Chaos. He had dark, close-cropped hair and bronze skin. He didn't so much as walk by, but saunter past us. As the dark haired boy's feet crunched on the dirt path in front of the Sick Bay, Chaos followed the his movements with his eyes, as if he were expecting him to do something interesting.

Just as the boy was about to depart down another pathway, he stopped, and without turning, he started backing up until he stood in front of us. Then he grinned and pivoted to look at us.

"Hey," he said casually, flashing me a bright smile. From here, I could see that his eyes were a dazzling golden color, like a fox's.

"Hi," I replied, returning a less flamboyant expression.

"You must be the new camper everyone's been freaking out about." He put on a worried face for me. "How's the arm?"

"Horrible," I stated.

He ignored me and held out his hand. "The name's Ruin. Ruin Abaddon," he said coolly, nodding his head a little. He sounded like the hero in an action movie.

"Ariadne," I answered, without getting up to shake his hand.

Next to me, Chaos smirked as the boy put his arm down.

"Sorry," I remarked. "Did you say your name was _Ruin_?"

"That's right." His faced stretched into a grin. "It's okay, I like your name, too," he said, slickly, flicking his dark hair out of his eyes.

"Stop trying to be so smooth, Ruin," Chaos finally spoke up. "People don't flip over it as much as you think."

"Shut up, _snake-head_," Ruin jeered, his smile dripping down into a sneer.

Chaos appeared irritated. "_Fatuus_," he said under his breath.

Ruin opened his mouth and looked like he was about to add something else, but then he just turned and stalked away.

"Did you just... call him fat?" I asked, thoroughly perplexed by the entire exchange.

"No," Chaos replied, sitting back on the steps to the Sick Bay. "I called him an idiot."

"Okay then."

"You should really just ignore him, he's _vere impar_."

"Uh..."

"Sorry," he added. "I mean, he's really odd."

I looked at him. "What language is that?" I asked, genuinely interested.

"Latin. Sorry if I slip into the dialect sometimes. I grew up around it."

"Oh. Are you from... wherever they speak Latin?"

"Latin is a dead language."

"Right. I knew that."

He grinned at me. "I guess you could say that my mom is from where they used to speak it, though."

I felt dumb. That's the one downside to not paying attention in school: not knowing about stupid stuff like dead languages.

"Don't work yourself up over it," Chaos told me, even though I hadn't said anything. "There are a lot of things campers don't know when they first get here."

"Does that mean that when you were offering to repeat 'Greek gods are real' in Latin, you could—"

"Actually do it?" he said. "Yes."

"I can't tell if you're psychic or just like to finish my sentences."

Chaos shrugged. "I'm used to having the same questions asked to me a lot."

"So, you're the one who shows the new campers around."

"No, I just patch them up if they're hurt and teach them how to fight if they don't know how. I'm not a tour guide. Though, speaking of chaperons, there's Kaia."

I snapped my head up, and sure enough, there was Kaia; slick black hair, green slitted eyes, scaly skin... wait, what?

Yelping, I jumped back a little.

"Don't freak out!" she stammered. The humanoid-looking lizard monster with my best friend's voice looked at Chaos. "I forgot the Misst again, didn't I?" she hissed.

Glancing at Chaos, I could see him smile a little bit and raise his eyebrows from beneath his sunglasses. "Yep," he said, like he was used to this.

I didn't get it. Chaos was just sitting back on the stairs with his elbows resting on the step behind him. Why wasn't he flipping out?

"Dang it!" Kaia exclaimed.

From the waist up, she looked very much like the Kaia that I had come to know and love, every feature perfectly in place. Her legs, though; those were a different matter altogether.

In place of her regular human legs, there were two snake bodies. I thought it appeared a little as if she was wearing snakeskin pants, but then I saw her walk. Well, er, slither.

Kaia nervously chewed on her lower lip with her fangs.

"Please tell me that's just really good monster makeup," I said.

"Um, not exactly," she replied. "Drop the 'makeup' part of it."

"Told you to brace yourself," I heard Chaos mutter next to me.

"Oh my god, you weren't kidding around."

"You mean, 'oh my _gods_,'" he said.

"Chaoss!" Kaia whined. "How much did you tell her? That's my job!"

"No worries, I left all the cool stuff for you, Kaia," he said, standing up and stuffing his hands in his pockets. He looked back at me. "My work here is done. Just watch the arm, alright? Good luck."

He trudged off down the trail towards the big round building in the distance without another word. _Please don't leave me! _I wanted to shout at him. _My best friend has snake legs and I don't know what to do!_

"Ari," Kaia said, taking a hesitant step forward. "I'm sso glad I didn't kill you!"

"You have no idea how much I agree with you."

"Oh, you musst have so many quesstionss." Kaia clasped her scaly hands in front of her and nodded at me like she was a psychiatrist ready to listen to an insane person's life story.

_Oh, where do I start?_ I wanted to ask. "Uh, what up with the fangs, first off?"

"I told you before, I'm a scythian dracaena."

"Like, the Greek snake women?" I asked, remembering my mythology book from home.

"Exactly like the Greek ssnake women," Kaia agreed.

"So, you and Chaos were telling the truth, about the gods being real?"

"Well, more importantly, Greek _monsters_ are real, but yeah."

"Is everything from mythology real, then? The Underworld, Mount Olympus, stuff like that?"

"Basically."

Looking back on it now, I have to admit that I felt a certain amount of ease in believing that statement, even back then when it was all new to me. As if I'd known that fact all my life, and I just hadn't remembered that I'd known it until that moment.

"So, um... when did all _that_ happen?" I asked.

"You know the sstoriess, Ariadne," Kaia said, slithering over to sit next to me. I scooted a few inches away from her. "The godss made the entire universe. Well, I guesss technically it was the titanss... or the primordial deities. It'ss all very confusing."

"I'll take your word for it."

"But anyway, it'ss been like thiss ssince the dawn of time. They've alwayss been here. They sstarted out by getting big in Greece, then moved on to influence the Roman empire with different namess, and sslowly took over the resst of Europe over the yearss, but they never sstayed in one country for too long. They move around with the world's center of power. That meanss they're here now, by the way. And, while we're talking about the gods, I might as well mention that the monsters move around with them. Sso they're here too!"

"I've noticed."

Kaia just smiled and nodded at me, tapping her long sharp fingernails on her leg—I mean, snake trunk.

"And I haven't heard of the gods being real... why?" I asked.

"Don't be ssilly, Ari. Do you have any idea how the _mortals_ would react if they found out there was actual real-life _gods_, making it thunder, making the ssun come up in the morningss, making people fall in love? Total discord."

"Then, all the science we know is actually fake? We just _think_ that the earth revolves around the sun, or that night and day are from us turning in space?"

"Don't assk me. I jusst accept that I'm here with snake legs and don't question it."

I sighed helplessly. "Alright, but why am I hearing about this now? Of all times? When were you planning on telling me that you were snakes and scales from the waist down?"

"Well, I had to be ssure about your parentage."

"My parentage?"

"You're a dual-blood."

"Dual-blood?"

"Meaning you've got both blood typess."

"Kaia, how many times am I going to have to repeat the last few words of every sentence you say, in a questioning tone until you actually tell me what that means?"

Kaia said, "It meanss you've got half mortal and half semi-mortal blood."

"You mean immortal?"

"Well, yess and no. It'ss complicated."

I was starting to get frustrated. "Is this how the entire conversation is going to be?"

"You're half human," she offered.

"So if I'm only half human, do I even want to know what my other fifty percent is?"

"Probably not."

"Okay, what am I?"

"I sshould sstart out by ssaying that even though they were born like a gazillion yearss ago, the godss haven't really changed much since the beginning of time. Jusst like in the mythss, they have a lot of kidss with mortalss."

"Uh... cool?"

"Well, maybe for them!" Kaia snapped. "Ugh, prissy little privileged demigods. Prancing around with their sspecial godly powers. They make me ssick."

"So you were saying..."

"Oh, yeah. Sso, there's these demigods—or half-bloods, whichever you prefer—running around the United Statess, killing off all the monsters. Like it'ss their _job_ or something. Ugh, completely annoying. Anyway, you know some monsterss from Greek mythology, right?"

"Of course. Medusa, the Sirens, the Minotaur. I could go on. But, didn't they all die a really long time ago, according to the myths? Heroes killed them off and everything, right?"

Kaia shook her head. "Not really. You can't actually kill a monster permanently. Well, you _can_ kill us, but we just go back to Tartarus and reform again. Ssometimes it takes a while, but we always come back. It's part of the reason heroess exist; they keep us at bay."

"Wait, tartar sauce makes monsters reform?"

"Tar-ta-russ, Ari," Kaia said, sounding the word out for me. "The deepest part of the Underworld where monsters come from."

"Alright. So, the famous monsters like the Hydra and Medusa are still around."

"Exactly," Kaia confirmed. "So the monsters, when they noticed that the gods were having kids with mortals, they decided that they needed more of their own children to defeat them all and protect themselves. Ones that weren't as fragile as regular monsters, who just crumble into dust when demigods hit them."

"Oh."

"Don't look so surprised, Ariadne," Kaia laughed. "You really thought the monsters would let the gods have all the fun?"

I shrugged, saying, "I guess not."

"So, along with the demigods, there are these kids that are half-monster and half-human."

"And they're just like normal humans?"

"Well, most of them have special powers depending on their parent. Some of them have physical attributes carried over from their monster parents, too."

"Where are all the half-monsters, then? Wouldn't they have to be in hiding to keep people from finding out about them?"

"That's what Camp Echidna is for!" Kaia swept her arm around, gesturing to the valley below us. "We train the dual-bloods to fight! Among other things, of course."

What Kaia was saying slowly dawned on me. "You mean... _all_ these kids are fifty percent monster? And... and you think I'm one of them! Don't you?"

"Well, of course," Kaia chimed. "You smell like one!"

I fought the urge to sniff myself.

"You have an aura of power like no other human, Ariadne," Kaia explained. "You've got ADHD and anger management issues, right? Those are really strong signs of a dual-blood. The ADHD helps in battle. It keeps you on your toes. The anger stuff is because you're naturally vicious. It's literally in your blood, most likely. Not to mention that you survived my scythian dracaena venom."

The more I thought about it, the more it made sense. The pieces fit together... "But— but—- how did you even find me?" I asked her.

"We've got dracaena sstationed at sschools everywhere. It was a bit of a longshot going to a ssmall town like yourss to investigate, but we had been ssensing power coming from that sschool for a while, we just didn't know which sstudent it was. Now I'm ssure it'ss you!"

"You mean, you're certain that I'm a dual-blood?"

"That'ss right!" Kaia cheered. "Ariadne Weaver, daughter of... uh... did Chaos and Lamia ever figure out who your mom is?"

"Who's Lamia?" I asked.

"Never mind. Let'ss finish the tour firsst, and I'll take you to ssee her later. Sshe'll definitely want to meet you."

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**Oh, Kaia, I'll never get tired of clicking through your speech impediment on Microsoft Word's grammar check.**

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**Tip For Readers: Never send guest hate/flames! That is a real person on the other side of the internet! If you really don't like the story, point out the flaws and tell them how they can fix them, or don't read it at all! It's not your CIVIC DUTY to make people aware of their bad writing. You're not the fanfiction Batman, ridding the world of bad writing.**

**Tip For Writers: It is strongly advised to not ask stupid questions at the end of your chapters to get readers to review like, "What's your favorite color? Review to answer!" Likewise, don't put something like, "say 'jellybeans' in your review if you read to the end of this author's note!" If the readers want to review, they will. Long annoying authors notes aren't going to change that. Of course, you can do whatever you want with your ANs, because it's YOUR writing; this is just some friendly advice.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hello again! I'm a day early on this update because I'll be out of town tomorrow night and probably wouldn't have been able to prepare the chapter for publishing. I will still reply to all your great reviews, though! I hope you have a nice weekend, enjoy the chapter!**

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As we walked through the clusters of buildings in the valley, Kaia explained what each one of them was. I'd never wondered what a summer camp for children of monsters from Greek mythology would be like, and it turns out, I didn't really have to; it was a lot like a regular summer camp. Along with the normal camp stuff like an arts and crafts house, basketball court, and archery range, Kaia talked about how there was a forge for making weapons, and pointed out the man-eating horse stables to me as we passed them.

Another thing I learned was that, apparently, Kaia was well-known around camp. Random kids kept coming up and speaking in what was probably Latin to her. She would laugh with them and then introduce me. I wasn't usually shy, but a lot of the kids were bigger than me. I mean, I was used to being the short one, but these kids all looked tough and solid, and some even had various weapons hanging at their sides. That part was actually pretty cool, but I have to admit that the idea of them being half-monster intimidated me; that is, until I remembered that I was supposed to be one of them.

By sunset, names and faces were flying around my head. I could barely keep them all straight. Everyone I met looked seemingly normal—apart from the occasional patch of scales or feathers—but I could tell something about them was slightly different compared to an average middle school kid; whether it was the mischievous look in their eyes, or the clubs and swords in their hands, I didn't know. Kaia sometimes mentioned their monster parent, and with each new monster she named, I asked myself, _Whose child am I? Who's my monster parent?_

I was feeling particularly dizzy after a large group of giggling girls walked passed us, and Kaia had insisted on them telling me all of their names. Of course, I didn't remember a single one of them afterward. It didn't help that my bad arm itched really bad, and my head was starting to hurt again. I considered asking Kaia if we could take a break from walking, but then she mentioned that it was about time to go to dinner, and my stomach grumbled.

Kaia steered me towards the Mess Hall. I was so occupied trying to blink the black spots out of my eyes that I didn't notice when I almost ran into another kid. But when I saw him, I couldn't even sure if he _was_ a kid, honestly. He was huge; tall with muscles, dark skin, and curly brown hair.

"Oh, hi, Theodore," Kaia greeted him.

I took a step back to look up at him.

"Hi," he said timidly. "Who... are you?" he asked me quietly, stepping back a bit too, as if he was _afraid_ of me or something. Except, he was built like an ox! I didn't think someone like him could even be capable of being scared of anything. Him being well over six feet tall made my five-foot-two frame look miniscule.

Before I could answer his question for myself, Kaia said, "Theo, this is Ariadne. Sshe's the one who's been in the Ssick Bay for the passt couple of days."

"Nice to meet you," I said for what seemed like the millionth time that evening.

"Uh... you... too," he said shyly.

"Ari, Theo is a sson of the Minotaur," Kaia told me.

"Oh," I said. "That explains it."

"What... does it explain?" Theo said slowly, like he was thinking over exactly how to ask the simple question.

"Nothing," I replied, taking one last glance at the mace strapped to his hip. "But, the Minotaur, huh? That's pretty cool."

"Yeah... uh... who's your... parent?" he inquired.

"You mean my mom?" I asked, assuming that he meant my monster parent. "I don't know yet."

"Oh... undetermined..."

"Anyway," Kaia said. "It's almost time for dinner. We were just headed to the Mess Hall, Theo. Ooo! I know, we can walk together!"

"Uh..." Theo's eyes flitted around, probably looking for an excuse to not go with us. Apparently he didn't find one, because he nodded his head.

We started walking in silence, the sun slowly setting in the distance. I wondered what that meant; is our side of the earth turning away from the sun, or are Apollo and the sun chariot just flying away?

"What's wrong with your arm?" Theo questioned me, finally speaking above the tone of a mumble.

I looked down and remembered my bandage. "Oh. I was bit."

"By what?"

"Kaia."

Theo grinned, his shyness fading slowly.

"Hey! I ssaid ssorry like a billion times for that!" Kaia snapped playfully. "But it was kind of your fault for sscaring me, too."

"Yeah, yeah. I know. We really should stop playing pranks on each other."

"Oh, come on, Ari. You and I both know that'ss not really going to happen."

"True."

"Does that mean you were poisoned, too?" Theo asked.

"Yeah. And, apparently I've been out for a couple of days."

"But you survived." Theo looked at me in awe. "I don't know anyone who's ever done that."

"Really?" I don't know why, I guess, but I thought it must've been a common thing among monster children to survive poisonings.

"Lamia ssays sshe ssuspectss Ariadne has a natural immunity to venom, like children of ssnakelike monssters," Kaia explained.

"Useful if I have a best friend who's half snake," I said.

"That'ss right!" Kaia chimed.

Together we made our way towards the Mess Hall, and on the way we passed a beautiful but odd-looking stone fountain with a marble bench circling it. It had a sculpture of a gigantic lion, some kind of goat-snake-lion hybrid, and a multi-headed dinosaur holding up a plate that dribbled water out into the base of the fountain, where I could see little gold and silver coins shimmering at the bottom.

"The children of Typhon and Echidna," Theo said when he saw me staring at the sculpture.

"The Nemean Lion, the Chimera, and the Hydra?" I guessed.

"You got it," Kaia answered me. "We've got thiss fountain because they're ssome of the only monssters that aren't at leasst part human; they don't have kidss. But it'ss supposed to repressent dual-bloodss as a sspecies, and kids throw coins in for their parents."

"Is that the rule for dual-bloods? That the monster parent has to be at least part human?" I inquired. "Because I sure hope the Clazmonian Sow doesn't have any kids. If it does, I already feel real sorry for them."

Kaia cracked up with laughter and Theo kind of chuckled.

"Yeah," Kaia said. "At leasst part human. That makess the Minotaur children, Harpy children, and the Sphinx children ssome of the mosst actual monsster-like of the dual-bloodss."

Theo bit his lip and nodded earnestly. I wondered if the fact that he's one quarter cow is a sensitive topic for him.

I took a last look at the intriguing fountain, admiring the softness in the sculpted monsters' eyes, despite, you know, them being monsters. I bet they're just like that in real life, too. As long as you're not a demigod trying to stab them with a sword, they're probably not as mean as the stories make them out to be.

Kaia, Theo, and I started walking again.

"So... how do you... know so much about Greek mythology?" Theo asked me.

"Oh, I've always loved the Greek myths." I put my hands in my pocket, only to remember that one of them was still burning beneath its bandage, and took that one out again. "I have a huge book about them at home. It's pretty much the only book I've ever enjoyed reading."

"It'ss true," Kaia stated. "Sshe _hatess_ bookss."

"How do _you_ know the myths?" I asked Theo.

Theo shrugged, and I could almost see him sinking back into his shyness. "I... well... learned about my... uh... parentage... when I was pretty young. I... kind of grew up here, so I knew all along... about them being... real. They... well... they were never just myths to me."

"Oh," I said. I didn't want to question him further, because it seemed like a conversation he didn't feel like having, for some reason. Instead I asked him, "So who's your favorite hero?"

Next to me, Kaia flinched a little and scowled.

"I've never really... thought about it," Theo replied, honestly. "I've... always been so focused on the monsters. What about you?"

"Oh, I've always liked Theseus. Except for the whole abandoning my namesake, the princess Ariadne, on some island. And... being forgetful and making his dad jump off a palace roof... and also killing your dad that one time. Sorry about that; no offense. I guess Theseus was a little stupid, too."

"That's alright." Theo grinned. "All the heroes are at least little stupid."

"A _little_?" Kaia scoffed. "More like _a lot_ sstupid."

"You must really hate these demigods," I told her.

Kaia gave me a look. "They were literally created to kill me. Of coursse I hate them."

I put my hands up. "I can't argue with that."

We turned down the path that ran next to the basketball court. A few teenagers were dribbling a ball around each other at lightning-fast speeds. They must've been brothers and sisters, because they all had the same silver-blond hair and pale skin. They were flying around the court faster than I could keep track of them, and I don't even mean that figuratively. Some of the teenagers were literally flying.

"Venti kids," Theo whispered to me. "Children of storm spirits."

"That's crazy," I muttered back. "But at least I can cross one name off my list of possible monsters mamas. I think I would know if I could fly."

"Just a few of them can do that," Theo explained to me. "Some are more powerful than others."

Just then, a boy with long black hair ran up to the basketball players. I could see him shout something at them frantically, and the game stopped for a minute, some of the teenagers hovering in mid air with mist swirling around their feet. The dark-haired boy asked them something and they all shrugged and went back to their game. He started jogging towards us.

"What'ss up, Flint?" Kaia greeted him.

"Oh, thank the gods," he said. "Look, Kaia. Another man-eating horse got out of the stables. I need your help, right now!"

"Okay, okay, calm down." Kaia turned to me and Theo. "I gotta go take care of thiss. Theo, make ssure Ari doessn't get into trouble while I'm gone," she told him, grinning.

"Um... alright... what?"

"Good!" she announced, slithering after Flint, her two snake legs like sandpaper against the dirt. "Ariadne, I'll come find you after dinner. Ssee you!"

She and Flint raced down another path, shouting after a man-eating horse named Gumdrop.

"See you later!" I called after her. "Hey, isn't a man-eating horse on the loose kinda dangerous?" I asked Theo.

"Don't worry. They don't eat dual-bloods... They like demigods, though."

"Well, that's handy."

"We should probably... go in," he said, gesturing to the big building next to us.

The dining hall was a long, brick structure. There were tall stained glass windows lining the walls, a ways up on the building. From the inside, I could hear chatting and talking and even some clattering that sounded suspiciously like breaking glass.

I nodded to Theo and he pushed open the big double-doors to the Mess Hall. Light from huge chandeliers that hung from the high ceiling of the building washed over us.

In two neat rows on either side of the long room were rectangular tables, like in the cafeteria at my school, except instead of hard benches, there were a variety of different mismatched chairs positioned randomly around the tables. Some of them were made of lighter or darker wood, some had cushions, and some were even missing legs and wobbled back and forth. The tables left a walkway down the center to a kind of raised platform at the far end of the building, like a stage.

On the inside, the stained glass windows were even more beautiful. Just like the fountain outside, they depicted the monsters from Greek mythology. I spotted one window portraying beautiful women singing on an island to brain-washed sailors. The Sirens. Another showed a group of strange-looking vampire women. They appeared to have mismatched legs; one looked almost bronze, the other was hooved, like a donkey's.

There were more, too, but I could barely soak it all in before Theo said, "I... uh... usually just sit with my siblings."

"Alright," I replied. "Lead the way."

He made his way through the tables, weaving around noisy campers that seemed to be trying to eat, talk, and laugh all at the same time.

One boy with a grin plastered on his face, slitted green eyes, and scales covering half his face tried to trip Theo with his foot, but he just skipped over the boy's leg, telling me, "Watch your step."

I followed Theo soundlessly to a table with more huge kids that all looked startlingly like him. I had no doubt that they were his brothers and sisters. They all had the same round eyes and square shoulders, but let me tell you this: Theo was _small_ compared to these kids.

While Theo was shy and slight, his siblings were more of what I thought a stereotypical child-of-the-Minotaur would act like. They were loud and big and looked like they would bash their heads together in their spare time. They spoke mostly in grunts to each other as they shoveled food into their mouths.

Theo and I sat on the far side of the long table, near the wall. I looked up at the stained glass above us. The picture in the glass pieces was a scene of a boy in a white tunic. At his feet lay a dead bull. Or a man. I really couldn't tell, until I realized it must be the Minotaur. That meant the hero in white must be Theseus.

In the background, a girl with long black hair stood holding a spool of red yarn. Ariadne.

Theo saw me staring. "I suppose being named after one helps, too."

"Helps what?" I asked.

"To enjoy the Greek myths."

"Oh, yeah. I guess so," I agreed. "I think the princess Ariadne in the myths was really clever. She figured out the maze, and helped Theseus figure it out, too. Without her, he never would've been a hero in the first place. I've always liked being named after her."

"And she was mortal," Theo added. "She wasn't even supposed to be special or anything, but she helped Theseus anyway, despite being a stupid demigod." He gave me a shy smile.

Another Minotaur kid, one of Theo's brothers, turned to us. "Hey little bro, who's the girl?"

"Ariadne," Theo replied simply, like he wanted to spend the least amount of time possible talking to his brother. "Undetermined."

"Hey, no way!" the other Minotaur kid responded, his mouth full of food. "You're the one they had holed up in the Sick Bay for days from that scythian dracaena venom." He leaned over the table and held out his hand.

"That's me," I remarked, shaking his hand, which almost engulfed all of mine due to how big it was.

He swallowed his food. "Call me Linus," he said. "Welcome to Camp."

"Thanks."

Linus went back to eating his food, and I turned back to Theo, who was looking at the stained glass again. Theseus seemed to be staring down at us, even though the piece that was supposed to be his face was a solid, featureless fragment of glass.

"How about you?" I questioned Theo, who seemed much more lost in the glass scene than I was.

Let it just be stated now that I was never really one to appreciate fine art the way some people did. I never paid it much attention, honestly.

"Sorry," he muttered. "What?"

"Have you ever met your dad?"

He paused for a moment and then shook his head. "No... a lot of kids here haven't."

"Wow, really? I bet demigods get to meet their parents. Being gods and all, you'd think they'd have all the time in the world to visit them."

"I bet..."

"So, where are all the demigods, anyway?"

"They... have some camp somewhere. Just like ours."

"Do you hate the demigods, like Kaia?" I asked.

Theo looked back down at his plate, which, like mine, had magically filled up with pizza the moment we sat down.

He leaned towards me a little and mumbled, "Honestly?"

"Yeah, duh," I whispered back.

"I... don't really know." He lifted one shoulder in an indifferent shrug. "Everyone here hates them, some even more than Kaia."

I, personally, found that particular statement hard to believe at the time.

"It's a natural grudge, I guess," Theo continued. "Killing our monster parents and all."

"I'd say that's a pretty good reason to hate someone," I replied.

"Yeah... except..." Theo trailed off.

"What?" I asked.

"It's nothing. Forget I said... anything."

"Um... alright."

Theo took a bite of his pizza as if to stop himself from saying anything else.

Meanwhile, I was too nervous to eat. I started drumming my fingers on the table.

Today had brought a lot to take in. I tried to go through everything new I'd learned about the world I thought I knew—but obviously didn't—in my head. My best friend was part snake and could poison people by biting them. I'd experienced that first hand. The Greek gods from the stories were real, and even though I had no genuine proof of that, something deep down inside me kind of wanted it to be true. I was currently at a summer camp for the children of Greek monsters. If that wasn't just about the coolest thing that had ever happened to me, I didn't know what was. I mean, I was sitting across from a son of the freaking Minotaur!

"Um... Ariadne..."

I snapped my head back up when I realized I'd been spacing out. My finger-tapping had turned into hand-drumming on the tabletop, making the silverware bounce.

"Oh... sorry," I said. "Apparently I haven't had my Adderall in more than a couple of days; I get kind of jumpy if my dad doesn't remind me to..."

Wait...

I almost cursed out loud.

"What?" Theo asked.

"My dad!" I nearly shouted.

A wave of something that I will only admit here was guilt washed over me. I had been so freaking caught up in all this new Greek-gods-are-real stuff that I had forgotten all about my _mortal_ parent.

"Oh man," I gulped, putting my head in my hands and twisting my fingers through my hair. "He doesn't even know where I am! I wonder if he thinks I was kidnapped or something. I mean, I kind of was... Oh gods, I bet he thinks I ran away."

"Ariad—"

"_And_ I was supposed to be grounded when Kaia came and got me from my house! I am literally the worst daughter ever." I put my forehead on the table. "This whole thing is a chaotic disaster."

"Ariadne... I... uh..." Theo stammered uncertainly, as if he wasn't quite sure how to go about comforting me. "Try to... calm down. We'll get everything... sorted out with your dad."

I lifted my head up, and found Theo with his eyebrows knitted together and his big eyes filled with worry.

"Okay," I trembled. "But, do you think maybe I could just call him or something? And explain everything? You wouldn't happen to have a cell phone, would you?"

"I... um..." Theo shook his head. "Sorry."

"That's okay."

"I'll... help you find one, though," he reassured. "As soon as possible. After..."

Theo trailed off, his eyes sliding over to the front of the room, where the raised stage-like area was. I realized the room had gotten a lot quieter. What were they anticipating?

"Good evening, camperss!" a thundering voice addressed us.

The hissing speaker was met with cheers and shouts and fists banging on tables.

"Who is that?" I questioned.

"It's Lamia... She's the... camp director."

"Oh." I strained my neck to see over kids' heads to get a glimpse of her.

"As for announcementss for tonight," Lamia continued. "Firsst, paintball is sstill on for thiss Ssaturday night—"

Before she could continue, cheers erupted from the campers.

"And, like usual, the teamss will be Bulls versuss Ssnakes."

That comment brought up jeers and taunts from each side of the room, especially from the bigger, rowdier Minotaur kids, and those derisions brought equally heavy responses from the other side of the room. I didn't know people could get so worked up about paintball.

"Come on, that'ss enough," Lamia called, her voice bouncing around the room. It only took those few words from her to quiet everyone down. I could see just enough in between the heads of campers to recognize that she gave us a knowing grin, and then continued cheerfully, "Let'ss ssave the fighting for Ssaturday. As I was ssaying, there is another big announcement for tonight."

Campers all around whispered to each other. Some pointed my way.

"Yes, I'm ssure you've heard. We have a new camper with uss! Sshe's actually been in the ssick bay for a few days; we can thank Kaia for that."

Everybody laughed.

"Come on up, Ariadne," Lamia said, welcomingly.

For a second or two, I was frozen in place. I wasn't expecting her to call me up to introduce myself.

"Ariadne," Theo whispered.

Forcing my legs to get me on my feet, I soundlessly moved to the front of the room. I subconsciously tucked my hair behind my ear and straightened my shirt. It was absolutely silent, and even without looking, I knew that all eyes were on me.

When I finally reached the front and climbed the steps to the stage, I got my first good look at Lamia. She was obviously a snake woman, like Kaia, but instead of having two snake bodies for legs, she only had one, with a neon green T-shirt with the words "Camp Echidna" on it on her upper half. Lamia appeared younger than I imagined her to be, maybe in her thirties. Something told me she was actually much older than that, though. Her eyes gave it away, I think. I guessed she must be several thousand years old. _Maybe she's even been killed before, and has reformed, just like Kaia had explained_, I thought. _How many lifetimes has this snake lady lived?_

Despite the fangs, Lamia had a kind smile. It gave me the courage to climb the steps to the stage. I looked out on all the other campers and scanned the crowd finding a few familiar faces, but noticing that Kaia still wasn't back yet.

"How about you tell your name to everyone?" she requested simply.

Her voice made me feel like she was speaking just to me, without the extra crowd sitting and watching us. It made me feel less nervous.

"I'm Ariadne Weaver."

Polite clapping sounded from the campers. Were these really the same people who had been shouting insults at each other just a minute ago?

"Regular or undetermined?" someone called from the crowd.

Lamia answered for me. "Undetermined."

A few campers groaned, but most just nodded with approval.

Lamia clapped her hands together twice, snapping everyone back to attention. "Okay then, you all know the way thingss work from here on out. But for Ariadne'ss ssake, and for anyone who hass had _trouble_ remembering the rules in the past, I'll explain again." She eyed a few mischievous-looking campers in the audience and cleared her throat. "To follow our Latin rootss, we do thingss Roman-sstyle here. Because Ariadne is sstill undetermined, sshe will be _probatio_ until sshe proves herself to the camp or is claimed by her monster parent. Until then, ssomeone must repressent Ariadne.

"As Ariadne'ss repressentative, you will be _responssible_ for her. Anything sshe does wrong, you will also be punished for. If sshe is chosen to lead a quest, you musst go with her. Anyone can volunteer; a camper, a dracaena, anybody. Sso, with that, who wishes to repressent Ariadne Weaver?"

Silence. No one. Not a single freaking person stood up to represent me.

_Do I really look that much like a trouble maker? Do people not trust me? _I asked myself. _Wow, Ariadne. You need to work on a more outgoing image for yourself and be nicer when your half-snake best friend is introducing you to fellow campers._

I wished Kaia were there. She would've volunteered to represent me.

My stomach lurched as I scanned the crowd; everybody just looked at me. I spotted Theo at his table, but I knew he wouldn't stand up. He was fidgeting in his seat, his brothers and sisters eyeing him worriedly. I don't really know why, but the entire pathetic scene made me laugh. Well, it was more of a half lopsided grin than an actual smile due to me trying to hide it up on stage. Then I remembered my predicament. Just as I was about to run off the stage screaming, someone stood up.

"I, Chaos Avers, volunteer to represent Ariadne Weaver."

It was the tall boy that wrapped up my arm and came to get me from the Sick Bay; Chaos, with his hood still up and his sunglasses still on, standing up a little less than straight among similarly slouching hoodie-clad friends that I assumed were his brothers and sisters.

"Wonderful," Lamia exclaimed, clapping her hands together again. Everyone else started clapping too.

I nodded at Chaos but his face remained void of expression. He sat down again, some of his friends smiling at him and clapping him on the back.

Lamia wrapped up her announcements with a simple, "Welcome to Camp, Ariadne."

* * *

**This is a haiku**

**About what a lil' cutie**

**Theo Kason is**

* * *

**Tip For Writers: YOU HAVE THE ENTIRE INTERNET AT YOUR FINGERTIPS! Got a word on the tip of your tongue that you can't come up with? Open up a new tab and check out a motherfrickin' online thesaurus. Don't know how to write a drunk character? Google that shiz! Need a simple name for a background character? RANDOM NAME GENERATORS, BEEATCHES! Use your resources!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Aaaand here's chapter four of The Adventures of Ariadne Weaver, in which Ari finds out that even dual-bloods have problems, the flames freak out because of the darastically changed scenes, and absolutely everyone fights about whether it's pronounced Air-ee or Ah-ree. Happy two-month anniversary!**

* * *

I was surprised when I managed to make it back to my seat without falling over. I hadn't been that nervous in my entire life.

Theo didn't say anything when I sat down so hard in my seat I made the table shake.

"Quite the experience, isn't it?" Linus, Theo's brother, asked me from farther down on the table.

I scratched at the bandage on my arm. "Yeah. That was... something."

"But Chaos Avers stood to represent you," Linus said. "He's a cool guy. If you stick around Camp, you'll probably get some sword fighting lessons from him."

"Oh. Nice."

I didn't know why I wasn't totally ecstatic about the fact that'd I'd be learning about sword fighting, but for some reason my stomach was still turning from being up on the stage and standing in front of everyone.

Theo mumbled something across the table.

I replied, "What?"

"I said... sorry." He shrugged. "For... not standing up."

Laughing, I said, "Hey, that's okay. It's no big deal."

Theo didn't answer, so I just stuffed some more pizza in my face. I wondered if I had said something to make him mad.

"Hey, that was great, new girl," a voice said from behind me. "Nice performance."

Theo visibly flinched.

I turned and saw the really cocky boy from before, who'd stopped to talk to me and Chaos outside the Sick Bay; the one with the pretty golden eyes. Behind him was a group of ditsy-looking giggling girls.

"Thanks," I said, flatly. "Ruin... Abaddon, right?"

He sauntered up to stand at the end of our table, looking from me to Theo, but not breaking his shining smile. "No problem," he replied coolly. "And, the princess Ariadne, if I'm not mistaken."

"Drop the 'princess' part, and you're good to go."

"I remember when I first got here," Ruin explained, ignoring me. "Didn't know who my mom was, so I was a _probatio_ too, and I had to get someone to represent me just like you did." He chuckled to himself and picked at his fingernails. "Except, I didn't have to stay up there for quite so long. There were a bunch of people who stood up to represent me."

I got the feeling that the "bunch of people" had something to do with the crowd of flighty girls standing behind him.

"Nice narrative, Ruin," a monotone voice sounded from behind him. "You can tell it again during story time at the Psychiatric Institute for the Extremely Self-Absorbed."

Ruin's grin didn't falter, but his eyes cast a little glare towards the ground. He said cheerfully, "Speaking of representatives, good luck with this one, Ariadne." He jabbed a thumb over his shoulder at Chaos without even turning to look at him.

Chaos sighed. "Ruin, don't you have somewhere to be? Mesmerizing people with that _ever-so-charming_ voice of yours? Making trapezes everywhere jealous of that ridiculous swing in your step?"

Ruin's company of pretty girls followed him as he scowled and meandered away with a somewhat forced prance, looking very ticked off that Chaos had gotten the last word, even though I was beginning to suspect that this must be something that happened quite often between them.

"Sorry about that," Chaos told me. "Anyway, are you done with your dinner, Ariadne?"

I looked down at my pizza. I'd barely touched it, but I didn't have much of an appetite. "Yeah, I'm done. Why?"

"Living arrangements. I represent you, so you're supposed to be living in the marble barracks with us," he explained, gesturing to his brothers and sisters already making their way out of the Mess Hall.

I remembered my first good view of Camp Echidna from up on the hill on the Sick Bay's front porch. There had been two big lodge-like structures side by side in the valley; one made from white stone like an old Greek temple, and one made from rough wood that might have been called a shack if it weren't the size of a small dormitory. Kaia hadn't quite gotten around to showing me that side of Camp.

Even though I hadn't said anything, Chaos must've seen the look on my face because he just sighed and remarked, "Kaia is really bad at doing tours of Camp, isn't she?"

"I guess so," I stated.

Come to think of it, Kaia hadn't explained any of this "_probatio_" stuff, either, much less the living arrangements for all the campers. I looked over at Theo, who had had a pained look on his face ever since Ruin had made his way over to us. I didn't blame him. Ruin Abaddon was even worse than my annoying lab partner, Chloe Adeline Everly, from science class. Now that I think about it, her and Ruin would've made really great friends.

"Alright," I said to Theo. "I guess I'll see you around, then?"

He ducked his head and spoke even quieter than normal. "Yeah... see you..."

Chaos gestured for me to come with him and sped off, leaving me to work my way through the campers that were still eating. Chaos weaved in and around tables and chairs, but unlike Theo, no one tried to trip him. People greeted Chaos with grins rather than smirks, and he gave stoic little nods back at them. He took long strides that were hard to keep up with on my short legs, but I was fast enough not to lose him in the crowd.

When we met up with Chaos's siblings at the entrance, he held the door open for everyone as they filed out into the night. It had gotten dark really quickly, but despite the lack of light, Chaos and a lot of his brothers and sisters kept their sunglasses on.

Chaos and I ambled towards the back of the group, letting some of the older-looking campers lead the way.

I looked at Chaos. "Uh... thanks for, you know, standing up to represent me, or whatever," I offered, awkwardly.

Chaos shrugged. "It's no big deal. I represent a lot of new kids."

"Okay... cool, I guess."

For some reason, his comment made me feel less... significant. I reminded myself that I was just another new camper to a lot of people, including Chaos. Just because I had rode in with Kaia—who seemed popular enough—and survived something that apparently a lot of people didn't usually survive, didn't mean I was automatically accepted here. I had to remember to make an impression, just like if it was the first day of school. Except... this wasn't just some regular school. It was a camp for _children of Greek monsters_. I had to figure out my surroundings first, get my bearings.

"What's with the shades indoors?" I questioned the group. "Are you, like, blind?"

"No," Chaos replied.

Some of the other kids walking with us smirked.

"Okay..." I decided to change the subject. "So, what does _probatio_ even mean?" I asked Chaos.

"Nothing, really. It's just another name for a new camper. The Roman camp takes ranks more seriously, though. But you don't have to worry about that here."

"Roman camp?"

"For the demigods. There are two; one for Romans and one for Greeks. The gods keep them separated though, for reasons that involve not wanting to start World War Three."

"Demigods are that powerful, huh?"

"Or that _stupid_," one of Chaos's brothers chimed in.

Chaos didn't have a response to that comment.

I just nodded my head. "And, there's a difference between Greek and Roman demigods?"

"The Romans are very serious and dedicated to tradition," Chaos explained. "The Greeks are more _remissa_... relaxed."

"So, is this camp for only half Greek monsters, or Roman, or what?"

"I guess you could say it's for both. The monsters are pretty much the same in each culture, so it doesn't matter so much like with the gods, who are really different. We mix the two mindsets together a lot. Speaking both ancient Greek and Latin, for example; stuff like that."

"Not to mention nobody cares enough about us to build _two whole camps_ for us no-good dual-bloods," another one of Chaos's siblings chimed in.

"That's interesting," I remarked to Chaos, ignoring that last comment. "So, if _probatio_ is just something the Romans take seriously, then why do we need representatives?"

"It's just a tradition. Lamia probably would've represented you if no one else did. It's happened before..." Chaos paused, thinking of what to say. "But I wanted to spare you the trouble."

"But you'll still be punished if I get in trouble, though?"

"Yeah."

I grinned and looked at Chaos out of the corner of my eye. "You worried I'll mess something up?"

"You haven't given me any reason to discredit your regard for following rules as of yet," he answered. "Then again, you're a dual-blood, which means by mere definition you're more likely to end up burning down a building or blowing a crater into the side of the cliff sooner or later."

A couple of kids laughed and high-fived each other as if recalling a funny memory.

I grinned. "Then why did you feel like standing up and taking responsibility for my actions?"

One of Chaos's siblings chuckled. "Because he's just that nice," she said, coming up and putting an arm around his shoulders.

It was tall girl, wearing a navy blue hoodie similar to the rest of the group's style. Except, I noticed that she was one of the few that didn't wear sunglasses. The girl smiled at me as she attempted to dig her knuckles into Chaos's head through his hood, but he managed to squirm out of her hold.

"Would you stop that!" he hissed, although I could see the corners of his mouth quirk up just a little. The girl let out a laugh, but let Chaos walk ahead of us a little bit.

As we turned down another dirt path together towards the two tall buildings lit up with torches, I guessed, "So, you're Chaos's siblings. You all live in one big lodge?"

I looked up at the two large buildings. The dormitory-like structures cast long shadows out onto their porches.

"Yup," the tall girl—who was somehow able to put a six-foot-tall Chaos in a headlock and was apparently his sister—confirmed. She came up to walk in step with me.

While she twisted her long dark hair over one shoulder, I got a closer look at her face. She looked like she was at least half Asian, and seemed maybe a couple years older than me. The only thing that interrupted her pleasant appearance was a long scar that ran down the side of her cheek and disappeared into her shirt in back.

"Oh, don't let the scar scare you." She held out her hand. "I'm Elise."

"Ariadne," I said, shaking her hand gently as to not hurt my injured arm.

She smiled back at me. And she had _fangs._ Not as long as Kaia's or Lamia's, but her canine teeth definitely stuck out more than an average person's.

"Nice teeth, by the way." I beamed back. "I wish I had cool fangs like you."

"Wow, that's a first!" one of Chaos's brothers exclaimed. "Someone who actually _wants_ to be a snake-head?"

Everyone around us laughed. I was trying to understand how Chaos's brothers and sisters could be so cynical and also really amusing at the same time.

"What's a snake-head?" I remembered that I had heard Ruin call Chaos something like that back at the Sick Bay, but I hadn't paid any attention to it. When Ruin had said it, it had sounded like an insult.

Another sister piped up, "Gods, haven't you guessed already?"

I hesitated. Did the nickname have something to do with their parentage? Of course it did. They were all at least half brothers and sisters, so their nickname must have something to do with their monster parent.

I thought for just a second, running through the names of famous Greek monsters. When I finally recalled the myth, I became suddenly wary of the potential power surrounding me.

"Medusa?" I squeaked.

"Ding ding ding! Correct!" Elise cheered.

"I can't believe I didn't figure that out before."

"Like I said back at the Sick Bay," Chaos reminded me, falling back to walk on the opposite side of me from Elise. "There are a lot of things people don't know when they first get here."

"So, can you... you know..." I trailed off, not quite knowing if I should ask or not.

"Turn people to stone?" Elise raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, that."

"Certainly. Under the right conditions, of course."

I asked curiously, "Conditions?"

"Yeah," Elise started to explain, "like, if we get our blood pumping fast enough and we've got a lot of adrenaline in our systems. If we think we're in danger, or we get really excited, or we get really angry. Stuff like that."

"We all wear the glasses occasionally for security reasons, but a couple of us have to wear the glasses all the time," explained a brother. "Most of us are just forced to wear goggles when we're playing paintball or practicing combat, and that's it."

"Lucky," I heard Chaos mumble.

"Okay, I think I get it." I looked around at all of the teenagers wearing shades even though it was pitch dark out. "Then, it's more of a defense mechanism, instead of just all the time like the real Medusa."

"Exactly," Elise responded, nodding. "A lot of us have learned to control it, for the most part, but there are a few of us who are way stronger than others..."

As Elise trailed off, Chaos stuffed his hands into the pockets of his jacket and kicked a stone on the dirt path.

"Got it," I muttered.

I wondered how hard it must be for those specific children of Medusa to have to go about life wearing sunglasses twenty-four, seven. They could never look anyone right in the eye, and their whole world would be literally darker. I couldn't imagine how dull that must be.

As we neared the front steps to the marble lodge, Elise announced, "Welcome to the _dimidium domus_," breaking the silence.

I stopped and looked up at the huge building. I had seen it from a distance, outside the Sick Bay, but it looked even bigger up close. It was easily two stories high, probably with tall ceilings, too. Everything was marble with old-fashioned torches attached to the walls, but also an electric bug-zapper hanging from the porch ceiling with moths fluttering around it. Inside there were voices and laughter, and when I looked up, I saw a few kids sitting in window sills reading or drawing quietly. The porch had pillars all around it and the doorway had carvings in what looked like Greek and Latin etched into it.

"Whoa," I awed.

"Yeah!" Ruin's obnoxious voice sounded from next to me. "A lot better than the Minotaur's shack, am I right?" He sauntered past us and into the building.

"Watch out Ruin, you'll trip over your own ego," Chaos mumbled, half-heartedly.

"No way. _He_ lives here?" I hissed to Elise.

"Where else would he live? He's a son of a Siren," she replied.

"Oh, so that's why—"

I was interrupted by a herd of girls swooning after Ruin.

"Exactly," Elise said, slyly.

Chaos grunted something I couldn't hear and crossed his arms.

"Oh, calm down little brother," Elise teased.

We all entered the barracks and made our way through bunk beds that were placed in neat, even rows along the walls and down the center of the building. It was basically one big room with pillars to hold up the high ceiling. The walls were mostly blank, aside from the occasional picture or poster on the space behind a camper's bunk. Well... and the weapons and shields on display _everywhere_.

Somewhere, someone cranked up a radio and blasted music throughout the lodge. Everyone started mingling and dancing and passing out cans of soda that I was pretty sure weren't supposed to be allowed.

A barking sound came from behind me, and a second later, a brown labrador retriever flew by me, rushing between the legs of kids, who just laughed and tried to see what the dog was chasing. The dog was so fast, it was almost like just a blur of brown fur rocketing down the aisles between the bunk beds.

"That isn't just _any_ chocolate lab, is it?" I inquired.

"Nope." Chaos crouched down and tapped the floor. "Laelaps, come here, girl!"

In a flash, the brown lab was back, sitting obediently in front of Chaos. He scratched her ears and her tongue lolled out.

I was stunned. "Wait. Laelaps, as in, the dog who is destined to always catch whatever she's hunting?"

"Well, technically this Laelaps is just an descendant of the original Laelaps. The original was turned to stone by Zeus and then made into a constellation. But our Lae is definitely still pretty fast."

One of the younger campers, who looked maybe seven or eight, came up with a red rubber chew toy in the shape of a Greek-style sword in his hand, saying, "Lae, fetch!" and hurled the toy sword down the length of the room over the heads of unsuspecting teenagers.

As quickly as she had come, Laelaps was off again, weaving in between the campers' feet.

The entire place was packed with campers who were filing in from dinner. There was a diverse spectrum of kids with monster-like features such as scales, slitted eyes, abnormally pale skin, and fangs. In a way, the fact that I didn't have anything to mark me as half-monster made me feel left out. I didn't have cool fangs like Elise, or the ability to turn people to stone, either. I wondered what cool powers came with being the daughter of whoever my monster parent was.

I thought again about my dad. Now that I had remembered him, I couldn't stop fretting over what he might be thinking about me. He'd be worried about me. Probably.

When I was younger, I was that kid that threatened to run away from home on a daily basis. Like, all little kids think about running away at one point or another in their lives, but apparently I used to take it really seriously. The way my dad explained it, it sounded like I'd just disappear off into the woods behind my house randomly during the day with a backpack full of peanut butter sandwiches and my yo-yo, and he'd get neighbors to help look for me. He'd find me hiding up in some tree, and he'd bring me home, and the next day I'd do it all over again.

"_Eventually I just got used to it,"_ he would say, laughing. _"I didn't worry too much after a while."_

I had grown out of trying to run away a long time ago, but I thought about how much he must be worrying now. Did he think that I'd run away because of the fight we'd had earlier? If that was the case, he was probably beating himself up about it pretty bad right about now.

I suddenly knew I had to talk to my dad. Even if I couldn't explain everything to him right now about the gods or the monsters, I needed to let him know I was okay.

Gravitating towards Chaos, who had settled into a space between two bunk beds, I scratched the bandage on my arm.

"Do you need some help with that?" he asked me, gesturing to my arm.

I looked down. Some of the bandage was torn and falling apart where I had been clawing at it all day. "Um... yes."

Chaos smirked, unzipping his jacket and bringing out a roll of white cloth from the inside pocket. His hood fell off his head for the first time I'd seen him, revealing close-cropped blond hair and an angular face that I hadn't been able to notice before.

"Do you carry around medical supplies with you all the time?" I questioned him, holding out my arm for him to wrap.

"Medical personnel, gotta medically provide."

"What else do have to haul around?"

He shrugged while he starting unraveling the shredded cloth from around my arm. "Stuff for pain, more bandages, burn ointment. I'm like a stop-and-go school nurse."

"Oh. Cool. And, do you happen to keep a cell phone, by any chance?"

"Are you asking for my number?"

"No," I said quickly. "I just was wondering if I could use it to call my dad."

Chaos simpered. "Yeah, I have a phone. I don't use it much, though. It's not a smart idea here at Camp."

"Why's that?"

"Dual-bloods have this knack for being able to listen in on phone calls."

"What?"

"Well, monsters themselves can do it best. It's a good way to find demigods, after all. But, we inherit some of the ability."

"That's never happened to me before. I can't just _hear_ people's phone calls."

"It'll probably develop more now that you know what you are. Just like any super powers you might have hidden away in your subconscious."

"That's pretty cool, honestly," I admitted.

"Yeah, except I wouldn't put it past some of the kids here to be polite enough to tune your private conversations out."

I watched Chaos's hands go back and forth, weaving the new strip of cloth around my gross poisoned arm.

"I guess I'll just have to wait to talk to my dad, then," I said, tiredly.

Chaos took my hand and tied the end of the bandage around my wrist. "Hey, don't worry. I'm sure we'll find a way for you to talk to him soon."

"Thanks." I looked up at him, not quite seeing through the darkness of his glasses to make out his eye shape.

He smiled at me, kindly.

"No fangs, I see," I told him.

"Yep." He scratched the back of his head. "Elise got that rare blessing."

"And you're a blondie," I continued.

He laughed. "What were you expecting? Snakes?"

"Not sure, exactly." I shrugged. "So what's with the dorms? Why do they look so different?"

"There are just the two barracks," Chaos explained. "One for the children of more humanoid monsters, like the Sirens and Medusa. The other lodge is for more... _creature-like _dual-bloods." I could tell he was trying to put it nicely.

"Like the _Minotaur_," a sneer sounded from behind us, not as nicely.

I swear... I was starting to think that Ruin's voice got more annoying every time it snuck up on me.

"Gods," I mumbled to Chaos. "Does he just follow you around, looking to irritate someone?"

"I've known him for upwards of seven years, and let me just tell you that this is _less_ annoying than usual. He must've had a busy day."

"I'm right here," Ruin snapped.

"Sorry, I think I'm blind to morons now." Chaos's face went blank. "My optic nerve is now incapable of sending electrical impulses to my brain that include complete _tools_."

"Ha-ha," Ruin remarked, flatly. "Very funny, Serpent Skull."

"What are you even doing over here?" Chaos asked, tiredly.

"Calm down, _Stone Stare_. Just passing through."

Chaos suddenly stepped forward and squared his shoulders, his shoes squeaking on the marble floor. Ruin took a tiny step back.

"Exactly how many nicknames do you have for him, Ruin?" I smirked, jokingly.

Chaos's fists clenched, but he ignored my comment. "Say that again, Abaddon."

"Ooh," Ruin sang, snickering. "I forgot he doesn't like that one..."

Chaos took another step forward, almost towering over his adversary, but this time Ruin didn't step down. "I'm getting real tired of that aggravating voice of yours, Ruin," Chaos told him.

I sensed that this was about to get messy. "Um... Chaos, how about we let the _fatuus_ go in peace, huh?" I was about to grab Chaos and tug him away, when he raised his arm and swung, just barely missing Ruin's head as the annoying little brat ducked down and then popped back upright, backing away slowly now. Some kids around the two boys backed off, but most grinned and egged the two on, like they were happy for the entertainment.

"And _I'm_ getting real bored of those sunglasses of yours, Snake Brain," Ruin chimed, gingerly stepping away. "Why don't you take them off for a couple minutes? Please, for me?"

"Maybe I will," Chaos snarled, getting ready to take another swing.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Elise belted, suddenly between the two with Chaos's fist in her hand. She addressed Ruin by saying, "You got a death wish, kid?"

Instead of answering, Ruin just cackled and sauntered away in the opposite direction.

Chaos looked like he was about to go after him, when Elise twisted Chaos's arm a little too far the wrong way and he snatched it away, cursing at his sister.

"Ariadne, a little help?" she requested.

Snapping back to attention, I grabbed Chaos by the wrist and tried to drag him away, only to have him shake me off and grunt, "I'm fine. Leave me alone."

The fight in him was gone, along with Ruin, who had disappeared the moment Elise had intervened.

"Wow. Coward, much?" I yelled down the way Ruin had fled.

"Don't encourage either of them," Elise said sharply.

"I— I didn't—" I stammered.

"Yeah, yeah," Elise acknowledged. "It wasn't your fault, just don't... well, he isn't usually... nevermind." With that, she sped off in Chaos's wake, leaving me surrounded by disappointed-looking campers.

A kid with green reptile eyes whined, "Man, I thought for sure Chaos was gonna finally off him," as if this was something that happened weekly.

"Better luck next time," I muttered to him.

* * *

**Chaos and Ruin should really just kiss and make up already.**

* * *

**Tip For Readers: Ask questions about the characters! It helps you understand the characters better, and it helps the author develop them more. Ever wonder what kind of music the character listens to? Have you ever itched to know what a character's favorite food is? Chances are you've even wondered about what they do in their free time. Wanna find out? I bet the author knows.**

**Tip For Writers: Don't ever feel pressured to change a story because your readers want it. Write for you, not the flames. But whatever you choose to write, just be sure to enjoy writing it!  
**


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